Welcome to another “Original Wendesday” edition of The Laptop Sessions! I hope this once-a-week treatment is becoming a favorite of yours, because we truly believe our original tunes can stand alongside the other major-label bands’ songs we play on the music video blog.

If you want to hear any of our original music, make sure to visit the websites of Jim Fusco (me), Chris Moore, Jeff Copperthite, and our band (with Mike Fusco) Masters of the Universe.

Today, I bring you a “classic” Jim Fusco tune from the epic album, “My Other Half”. This album is a unique concept where it takes you on a journey from the beginning to the end of a relationship. How did I get my inspiration? Well, I lived through it and wrote a song each step of the way. I didn’t do it on purpose- it just happened. Strong emotions always make me want to write.

I’ve never had trouble coming up with tunes for my songs. I’ve always had them floating around, waiting to be written out. The trouble I have sometimes is coming up with something substantial enough to write about. That’s why you’ll notice many of my songs are about some sort of big event or emotional period in my young life.

During the days of the “My Other Half” album, relationships were so new to me- I wanted to write about every facet of them. That’s probably why I ended up with over 25 tracks…

Nowadays, things (as far as relationships go, at least) have definitely settled down. I’m happy, but comfortable, too. So, you’ll notice that the songs off of my upcoming album (who knows when that will come out…) are mostly about when something or someone bothered me in some way. I think you can learn a lot about me, my life, and my emotions by listening to my albums in order.

This song was written in one night with another song that I’ll be bringing to you next Original Wednesday in three weeks. I was in a very bad mood back in January of my senior year in high school. I knew my first ever relationship was going to end, but it hadn’t yet. I didn’t want it to because ANYTHING was better than being alone at that point. But, I didn’t know when things were going to happen.

Isn’t it funny to have those moments when you know something is going to happen, you can’t stop it, but you’re not sure when it’s all going to come to pass? Well, that’s how I felt then, and it ended up in a simple, yet heartfelt song.

I think some may think this is a kind of “suicide-song”. It isn’t and was never meant to be. “The end” that I speak of is the end of the relationship, not my life. And for that matter, if I ever felt that way, I wouldn’t end my life- I would continue living just to get back at all the people that made me so miserable in the first place!

Okay, enough of the explanation: get to watching this video! I hope you enjoy it. I’ll be on the “cover song” track on Saturday with another great tune from Paul McCartney. Stay tuned to the best music blog on Earth!

Today, I bring you the title track to my 2009 album, “Halfway There”. This is a very special video for me, as this original song live video was selected as one of the top three Instagram videos in the Sam Ash music store open mic video contest! From there, it went on to win the national Open Mic video contest title! I was given a $100 gift card to Sam Ash and I’m so glad an original song of mine got that kind of recognition. It was even featured on Sam Ash’s homepage once it won!

“Halfway There” was a concept I had for an album. Basically, I was growing up and had to come to terms with getting a job, getting married, and potentially giving up some of the lofty goals I had for myself in previous years. So, a lot of that album has to do with that sentiment.

But, you know something? I realized along the way that I’m pretty happy where things ended up. I realized that I didn’t really want to spend all of my days and nights trying to get gigs, living in perpetual poverty, and holding down some menial job until I hit it big. Now that I have a normal “day job”, it’s given me the flexibility to have a nice home and to get some of the guitars that I’ve always wanted. And, from everything I’ve heard and read, fame isn’t really all it’s cracked-up to be. I hope to make a name for myself with these Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music videos online (and maybe get recognized for it someday), but that’s something I can do in my free time. Problem is, like everyone else that’s married and has a house, I don’t have much free time!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy what I’ve been able to do on my little free time lately. Going to these open mic nights has brought me out of my comfort zone, but its also ignited my love for playing music again. I’ve met some interesting people, too. Stay tuned for more, as I continue to dig into my catalog of original songs and play at open mics around the state.

Welcome everyone to another installment of the Open Mic Sessions with Jim Fusco! Today, I bring you another session from my gig at Sam Ash Music Store in New Haven, CT back on April 3rd, 2013. I went with my brother Mike while he was visiting home for his birthday. I remember wanting to go to another venue, but chose Sam Ash because they gave me a $10 gift card just for playing! Yeah, I go where the “money” is…

Anyway, it gave me an opportunity to play another original song from my 2012 album, “Those Around Us”. This is one of the faster tracks on the album, “Opportunities”, which features a great drum track from my brother Mike. As we know, tracks like that are great for pairing-down into the famous “Laptop Sessions” style of performing- just me and an acoustic guitar!

So, I hope you enjoy my original song, “Opportunities”. Stay tuned as I bring you more of the “Open Mic Sessions” here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs and original music video blog!

Welcome to Original Wednesday here at the Laptop Sessions! It only comes but once every three weeks for me, so you know I’m going to make it a good one.

Tonight, I bring you an original song I wrote with the help of my fellow MoU (at http://jimfusco.com/albums.html ) bandmates for our latest album, “Homestead’s Revenge”. The album is GREAT, and you can listen to the whole thing for free on our website.

This song is track two off the album and follows a very interesting pattern. You might notice that the verse never comes back after the first round. It just has the chorus and middle instrumental parts play again and again. You almost don’t even notice it only has that one full verse until you stop and think about it.

I recorded this video last night. That is, I recorded this video BEFORE I made my huge discoveries pertaining to my original and cover songs videos.

First, I found a great program called iGlasses that allows me to manually control the iSight camera in my Macbook. It’s about time- I can’t stand when the camera just decides, “You know what, why don’t I just make it a lot darker for no reason?” Now, I’ll be able to control the exposure and brightness (plus white balance and color controls) BEFORE I record the video. This will save me time and, as we video professionals know, will make the end-result a lot nicer looking. It’s much more difficult to fix something in post-production than it is to do it right the first time around.

Second, I finally got my ZOOM H2 to record at the same time my iSight camera does!! You see, iMovie HD doesn’t give you the option to record using a different audio source. It just says “Record with iSight”.

Well, I went out to the main Apple preferences, switched the input in there, and presto- crystal clear sound without that incessantly loud fan noise that comes from the laptop.

But again, this was all learned AFTER I recorded the videos you’ll see from me for about the next month. BUT, at least we know great looking AND sounding video for me is on the horizon.

And the best part? I don’t have to do any extra work!

Thanks for watching and keep spreading the word about our great acoustic cover songs and original music!